CALLED TO SERVE

Hello friends! :) I am currently serving as a missionary for the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in the Nebraska Omaha Mission. I'll be emailing home every week for the 18 months that I'm in the Cornhusker state; my amazing mom will be the one posting them on this here blog. Interested in church history? Come on down to the Mormon Trail Center at Historic Winter Quarters and I might just be there to give you a tour!

"As we lose ourselves in the service of others, we discover our own lives and our own happiness." - Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Thursday, April 6, 2017

1/70,946 April 3, 2017

If you didn't get the title of this email, it's the number of full time missionaries in 2016!

Anyways, this week was so good! I feel like so many things happen so I'll try to sum them all up. On Tuesday we had a hand off lesson from the Elmwood sisters for their investigator Johnathon. He's Buddhist but has an interested in learning more about Jesus Christ!

Wednesday was a jam-packed day of miracles! It rained the whole day outside but the sun was still shining in our eyes! Somehow we had three back to back lessons and timing and team ups and everything worked perfectly. Mason brought David to the trail center for a tour. It was so good. He hasn't had coffee for four days! Instead, he takes cold showers to help him wake up in the mornings. Ahh he is progressing! :) Also, we found out that his mom is actually a less active member of the church! After David left, we weren't sure if Dave was still going to come, so we said a prayer with some other sisters, and he called not even 10 minutes later! We gave him a tour as well, and it was good that no one else came because he really opened up to us and we were able to find out his needs. We showed him #princeofpeace and he really really wants to believe that it's all true. He's still praying and reading his scriptures to come to know for himself that there is a God. I'd love and appreciate it if everyone could pray for him to have his heart softened that he may be able to recognize the Spirit witness to him that Heavenly Father is there and that his prayers are answered.

Oh my goodness Allie! We were able to have another lesson over the phone with my online investigator and she is doing fantastic!! She still hasn't been able to go to church, but she says she watches conference talks, reads more in her scriptures, and her friend tells her what they studied in church for them to discuss it. She is on fire!

Other exciting news from this week:

Sister Church was in town for a training and came and visited!! She's been in Kearney the past few transfers. Sister Janson and I attended a baptism for a guy named Danny on Saturday. He'll be moving into our ward! Then we went out to eat with some of the girls that were also there.

Conference was so good!! We watched all of the sessions at the trail center, except for Sunday afternoon we went over to Alyssa's and Ellen's. The Elmwood sisters have ANOTHER referral for us and they brought her there. She's super nice but I can't remember her name! It's really hard to pronounce. I love love love hearing from our prophet/apostles/other leaders. As a missionary it's even better than Christmas! Some of my favorite messages:

2. District picture with President - Elder Grey "feasts" on the words of Christ very literally...

3. Trio forever - side note. Sister Parsons is going home and I'm going to miss her so so much but we are so proud of our son. ♥

4. Goodbye Nelsons :( - other side note. These are two of the strongest people I know. They had a tragic accident in their family last summer and ended up losing their daughter and granddaughter. They didn't have to come back out on their mission, but they did because they're committed to serving the Lord.